A private operator in Queenstown could be delivering some public hospital services if a proposal by the Southern District Health Board is approved.

The DHB needs to save money and is talking of establishing an Integrated Family Health Centre which it says offers exciting, innovative and very necessary changes and is centred on the Government's policy of "better, sooner, more convenient healthcare."

But Queenstown correspondent, Steve Wilde, has been finding out if the proposals could mean the line between free hospital care and paying to the see the family GP is being blurred?